New Tour Has Potential To Cause World Of Trouble For Pga

ANALYSIS

The staid world of pro golf, which has long prided itself on harmony, stability and prosperity, has just been shaken up like never before, thanks to an ambitious Fox and a predatory Shark.

The World Golf Tour, bankrolled by the Fox Network and spearheaded by the sport's biggest star, Greg Norman, nicknamed the Shark, will offer golf's elite a chance at unprecedented wealth.

But the new tour, which will begin next year with an eight-event, $25 million schedule, could eventually land the PGA Tour and the bulk of its non-marquee players on skid row.

With only 30-40 players in each tournament, each winner getting $600,000 and last-place worth $30,000, it means the game's rich will get richer and the not-so-rich will be left outside looking in. The World Tour's leading player will also get a $1 million bonus and all participants will get a $50,000 travel allowance.

On the PGA Tour, 144 play every week, winners usually get around $200,000, and the 70 or so players who miss the cut each week get nothing.

If the new tour succeeds, sponsors that have long supported PGA Tour events could defect and the PGA Tour could be reduced to a second-tier sideshow. After all, who needs Brad Bryant, Fred Funk and Steve Stricker when you could have Norman, Ernie Els and Nick Price?

But that's getting ahead of things. Thursday's announcement of the tour's formation spurred more immediate questions, such as who will play, who will stay loyal to the Tour and can golf avoid the internecine warfare that has wreaked havoc on other sports like baseball and hockey?

It's a delicate situation. In launching the venture, Fox and Norman have clearly ruffled feathers. The PGA Tour, which has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on pro golf in the United States since it split with the PGA of America in 1968, suddenly finds itself with competition.

In the you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours world of golf, something like this just wasn't done. Until now.

It will be interesting to see how rookie PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who succeeded the despotic Deane Beman this year, responds to the crisis.

Without a brokered peace that allows top players to compete on both tours, the PGA Tour could lose its stable of stars. Most top players would be happy to have a schedule of the eight World Tour events, four major championships (which the PGA Tour does not run) and a few unofficial year-end events.

The PGA Tour requires members to play 15 events annually. It also has rules that restrict players from competing in non-tour events. No player has challenged that system, but the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating it the last two years and, according to The New York Times, is set to file a complaint against the tour charging restraint of trade.

The World Golf Tour's inaugural schedule will feature four events in the United States, as well as tournaments in Scotland, Canada, Spain and Japan. Four will be held the week before the four majors - The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. Other dates and specific sites have not been announced.

The World Tour's executive director is John Montgomery Jr., formerly with Delray Beach-based Executive Sports Inc. Montgomery has broken away from the company, which is headed by John Montgomery Sr., his father, and which runs dozens of golf events worldwide and eight on the PGA Tour, including the Honda Classic and Doral-Ryder Open.

In a statement released Wednesday, Montgomery Sr. said Executive Sports Inc. is not involved with the venture. Montgomery Jr. had been the firm's president until Wednesday.

Norman was the only player to appear at Thursday's news conference.

"This is about 30 years overdue," Norman said. "Outside the majors, we really don't have the best players playing against the best... week in and week out. Everybody I've spoken to, Nick Price, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal, all the responses have been extremely positive."

But some players are reluctant to support a venture that the PGA Tour opposes.

"He has my total support, as long as my position on the PGA Tour isn't challenged," Price said.

But Finchem has said he will try to stop PGA member involvement in the new tour. A showdown seems inevitable.

Finchem has not yet responded to the formal announcement. His next comment will come Saturday in Scottsdale, Ariz., at a golf conference.

Price said Norman might have rushed the new venture and that he wished Norman first consulted with Finchem.

"My main concern is what the repercussions from the Tour could be," Price said. "I made that clear to Greg."

Said Lanny Wadkins: "You can't just sit there and [dump) on the people who supported you all those years. Personally I think the public has seen enough greed out of athletes."